


Nails and Claws

by One_lovely_little_idiot



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Kinda, Origin Story, Pre-Canon, familial disagreements, same universe as my other we fic but can be read separately
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24465103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_lovely_little_idiot/pseuds/One_lovely_little_idiot
Summary: The daughter to a Mantis Lord finds herself wandering the Queen’s gardens in frustration regarding the lords’ actions, and meets a knight who seems as if they’re from an entirely different world.
Relationships: Traitor Lord's Daughter/Ze'mer | Grey Mourner
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Nails and Claws

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo I’m writing this on my phone at 3am with no inhibitions. let’s rolll gayssss  
> This is unedited btw 
> 
> I should also mention I named the traitor’s child Damari

Unn’s lands had always been breathtakingly beautiful to Damari, and even now, before her where part of it had been stolen away and littered with paths and walls and marked as the Pale Lady’s own, it still retained an otherworldly air. 

Their air was thick with petrichor and the quiet rustlings of mosscreeps. Every bush and shrub was lush green and every flower bloomed as if in an eternal spring. That was the effect of Unn’s magic on her lands, and to say it was one of Damari’s favourite places would be an understatement.

Her luck would have it that mantis like herself were not meant to tread into them. Damari’s tribe loved to turn away from anything different, anything that wasn’t uniquely alike theirs’. She understood the green lands struck as that, being far more lively than the dingy Fungal wastes. What Damari didn’t understand was her people’s repulsion by the uniqueness.

What repulsed her was the Lords decision to resolve the Pale King’s territory demands with diplomacy instead of their claws. It had left Damari feeling embarrassed and shamed to even be associated with such a cowardly action.

The Lords were always chosen through strength, through the strongest wills, yet they had bent to the demands of the Pale King so easily as if his status was higher than theirs. And then they’d turn around and chastise Damari for wandering into the gardens, as if their compliance somehow strengthened their flimsy claims at willpower. The hypocrisy was thick and it sent spite in Damari’s veins.

The only place she knew to dissolve it was here, somewhere that felt entirely different, a new kingdom altogether. The further she travelled the more mystical it grew. Despite the Pale one’s attempts to control the nature, it still broke through, manifesting into defensive thorns and traps laying just under the grass, ready to claim whatever fool didn’t take notice to their waiting jaws.

Damari could see her father being too wrapped in his own worries that he’d walk straight into one. She knew her father as better than the other lords, having initially disagreed to the Pale King’s demands about holding the line between Hallownest and Deepnest, yet he was still just as cowardly when he couldn’t follow through. They didn’t agree with him, and he simply accepted it like punishment.

Damari respected what was new, and she saw him just as guilty as the other lords in his reluctance to keep fighting for that. 

The mantis came to an area where the undergrowth had thickened to minimalise all light that could dare enter. It was clear this area had yet to be expanded into by the Pale Monarchs and Damaris found her curiosity being tested. She knew she could rely on her claws in battle, but for something unexpected?

“Che’ does not recommend venturing further.” Damari turned at once, claws poised ready to attack the sudden entrance of another.

Her eyes laid upon a towering figure, surrounded in long hair and clothes that made them seem otherworldingly like a spectre.From the stranger’s head were four slender antennae weaving into a crowning shape, hanging above a face obscured by a large heavy hood.

The mantis had never seen this creature before but instantly knew to be wary. They had a stagnant air around them, a distinct otherness, and a confidence that Damari was no danger to them in the slightest.

They were either a very capable warrior or very a foolish idiot, Damari concluded. 

The knight continued speaking, her voice had a quiet tone of someone who had been tempered by experiences, yet it was perfectly clear showing no hint of fear or intimidation. “Mysterious ones talking of light corrupted sit those tunnels, something we’ve tried expelling to no effect.”

“We?” Damari’s reply was sharp, hoping to deter the knight before from trying anything with the nail strapped to their back. Only the lords were meant to talk to outsiders, a belief instilled in Damari since she was young. She did not want this interaction to last long.

“Che’ supposes simply in assistance for the queen.” So they were an actual knight, and not only that but working closely to the queen. They must be capable then, or in a very long game of successful bluffs.

“Your rulers’ treaties are not in my confidence. I don’t agree with your lands enforcements, and I think I shall explore what was once free for us to my will.”

“Che’ will not stop you. She is not ofthese lands.” There was a reserved nature to the bug before Damari that she couldn’t resist being curious about. She’d never seen a bug quite like them, or radiate such an aura with seemingly no effort.

Damari be damned, she wanted to know about this outsider better. “You are not from Hallownest?” The accent and strange use of pronouns should have been her first clue to that, “Why would you serve it?”

Damari’s claws were itching for a fight, and probing into this warrior’s loyalty could give the mantis what she wanted. If this bug really was a capable knight, she wanted to see it first hand.

The knight paused, slowly thinking over how to respond. “It is a simple service Che’ gives to the kingdom, that allows her to be accepted as one of them.”

“So you’re a coward who won’t question a king- who she wasn’t even born under- as the fool he is?”

“Che’ believes it would be more foolish to stand against a ruler she is not fit to critique.”

Embers were alight beneath Damari’s shell. She couldn’t help seeing the knight as trying to tear through her pride. Damari was not foolish for thinking her lords as cowards. Damari knew there were better methods than heeding to the demands of the King of another land, and she had two claws to prove that.

At once the claws were poised, ready to strike if the other found their heart and moved to draw that monstrously sized nail.

However, the knight made no motion to even move. “An anger burns bright within you. Che warns you to be cautious that it wouldn’t leave you cold in your grave.”

“Is that a threat or an insult?”

“A warning. She would not want to see you hurt for thinking differently. It’s something that cannot be helped.” the knight spoke with a quietness in their words. It told a story on its own. A tale that they knew what injustice was firsthand, and that they knew how to be cautious. Damari considered maybe that was why they didn’t question the king. Maybe the knight saw that as the only way they could be different  and have their peace.

A shred of sympathy emerged in Damari, and also connection to her own life. She knew there were mantis who looked down on her. She was the daughter of a lord and yet couldn’t rise to be equal to his will. She should have an unfair advantage than others in proving herself, yet she knew she was seen as reckless and impulsive, too ready to throw herself into a battle.

Damari saw the stranger didn’t have bad intent. “Thank you for your warning, I suppose, though fire is in my nature. That is how all mantis are to be.”

“Che disagrees.” The knight came closer and drew something from her cloak. A small blossom, frail and pale. “As fire will have fire, grace will have grace.”

Damari realised the flower was intended to be taken as a gift, and looked between her claws to try and find a way to take it without damaging its fragile petals.

The knight realised this and instead reached to place it on the mantis’s cape. Th flower sat on Damari’s chest, the only sign of decadence she would allow herself. “You were made to fight, but that’s simply one use found in your claws. That can always change, if you so choose.”

“I cannot shed my claws. They are a part of me.”

“You changed your way however, in a simple act of accepting a conversation with Che.” Damari remembered the rule of mantis not interacting with outsiders. This time she decided she didn’t care, she wanted to talk to this knight.

“I suppose I have.” Damari swore there was a smile on the knight, though their hood hid it well. “I wish to speak with you again. You intrigue me.”

“Only time will tell if our paths intercept again, unless you choose to change the path your own.” That piece left Damari confused on what the knight truly meant. 

The knight dropped into a bow, a gesture usually only reserved for royalty in the underground. Whatever lands this person had reigned must’ve taught differently, and that interested some part of Damari. 

What were lands like beyond Hallownest? What were their customs? Would she ever know? It seemed the answer was in front of her wrapped in a thick cloak and shrouded in mystery. For now, Damari would have to start small. “What’s your name?”

“Ze’mer.” The knight’s voice was hushed, like she was telling a secret to be kept only between them.

She bowed again, and this time Damari repeating the gesture back in respect. “Damari.” 

**Author's Note:**

> No love story starts with immediate liking in my opinion. 
> 
> It’s not really shippy but hey this could Theoreticallt be the start of an extremely long slow burn. I dont think I’ll write that because I‘m already working on another long as hell fic im writing and Like three other drafts for different fandoms, but like its on the table I guess


End file.
